This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Generally speaking, servers are computer systems that operate on a network and provide services to clients. The servers typically run specialized operating systems configured to provide resources and applications to clients over the network. The clients, therefore, depend on the availability of the server and precautions are taken to prevent server downtime. Downtime can be especially problematic in mission-critical applications that have a requirement to be up and running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Depending on the needs of the network, a server system may include a single cabinet or may span across multiple cabinets. The operating systems of servers, as well as some hardware, including memory, require clock signals from a common oscillator to be available everywhere and the clock signals are used in synchronizing the activities of the server. Regardless of a server's size, additional server capacity may be required to meet increased demand for a server's applications or resources. Capacity can be increased through the addition of midplanes to an existing cabinet and/or new cabinets. However, in order to add capacity, scheduled down times have conventionally been necessary in order to synchronize the operations of the server.